IN Brief:
- Nuvoton and Qt are expanding the integration of Gerda HMI controllers with Qt for MCUs development tools.
- The architecture combines on-chip memory, graphics acceleration, and image compression to reduce external component requirements.
- Gerda-4L and Gerda-4UL received Qt platform support before November; the latest development advances their joint commercial offering.
Nuvoton Technology Corporation Japan and Qt Group are extending their collaboration on embedded graphical interfaces, combining Nuvoton’s Gerda HMI controllers with Qt for MCUs development tools to support animated displays without additional external memory in suitable product configurations.
The companies are targeting automotive instrument clusters, motorcycle displays, head-up displays, and connected appliance interfaces. Their joint approach combines dedicated graphics hardware, integrated memory, image compression, and software tools used to develop and deploy graphical applications on embedded controllers.
Nuvoton’s Gerda family is designed for products that require an interactive display but must operate within the processing, memory, power, and component-cost constraints of embedded electronics. These requirements differ from conventional desktop graphical applications, where substantially larger processors and external memory systems are normally available.
Graphical interfaces can place considerable demands on a microcontroller when they contain high-resolution backgrounds, moving instruments, animated transitions, and multiple visual layers. The application must store graphical assets, calculate updates, and deliver image data to the display at a sufficient rate to maintain the intended appearance.
Memory requirements depend partly on the framebuffer, which holds pixel information for display output. At 1280 × 720 resolution, a single uncompressed 32-bit framebuffer requires approximately 3.7MB of storage before any additional space is allocated to application code, graphical assets, or intermediate rendering operations.
Providing separate framebuffers and image-processing buffers can increase these requirements further. An embedded controller with insufficient internal RAM may consequently need external memory, introducing additional components, PCB routing, power consumption, and potential signal integrity constraints.
Gerda controllers address this problem through substantial integrated memory and dedicated graphical processing functions. The Gerda-4L platform uses an Arm Cortex-M7 processor, with documented configurations incorporating 6MB of graphics RAM, alongside other internal memory resources and a dedicated two-dimensional graphics engine.
The hardware also provides image compression capabilities intended to reduce the amount of memory occupied by graphical information. Compression can allow more assets to remain in the available memory, although the result depends on the characteristics of the images and the formats supported by the graphics hardware.
Qt for MCUs provides a development framework through which these resources can be used. Its Qt Quick Ultralite technology supports embedded interface applications developed using QML, allowing graphical elements, application states, and animations to be described within a structured software environment.
Qt Creator provides a development environment for implementing and testing the application, while the associated toolchain converts graphical definitions and software into a form suitable for the selected embedded target. The available development workflow also includes simulation and debugging facilities.
Moving from a graphical design to the finished embedded application still requires consideration of the target controller’s resources. Image formats, rendering operations, available memory, and the behaviour of the display controller influence which graphical functions can operate efficiently.
Not every graphical operation supported by Qt’s wider software portfolio is available through the same hardware implementation on Gerda. The platform documentation identifies limitations affecting vector graphics and certain small-image blending operations on Gerda-4L, making testing on the intended hardware necessary.
The companies’ November collaboration builds on technical support established earlier in 2026. Qt for MCUs 2.12.2, released in July, upgraded Gerda-4L to a Tier 2 supported platform and provided an integrated Qt Creator development kit.
Qt for MCUs 2.12.3, released in October, subsequently added Gerda-4UL as another Tier 2 target. The November activity therefore represents an expansion of the companies’ joint offering and demonstration programme rather than the first availability of Gerda support in Qt for MCUs.
Tier 2 support provides a verified development target with integration resources that allow software engineers to begin implementation using the supported toolchain. It does not remove the need to obtain the correct board-specific software, debugging hardware, and development environment.
For Gerda-4L, Qt’s documented reference development arrangement uses the µITRON operating system and the IAR toolchain on a Windows development host. The supported evaluation board also contains external SDRAM, even though the commercial architecture is intended to support suitable interfaces without additional memory.
That distinction is important when assessing the resulting hardware design. A demonstration board’s component configuration does not establish that every application requires the same memory arrangement, while the ability to omit external RAM depends on the actual display workload and available internal resources.
Nuvoton also identifies security functions as part of the Gerda platform, supporting embedded products that require controlled firmware changes and software protection. Such capabilities can contribute to an over-the-air update system, but the completed product still requires a suitable communications interface, authentication process, firmware management, and recovery arrangements.
In automotive applications, graphical software must also operate within the electrical and operational requirements of the vehicle. An instrument cluster can combine routine information with warnings and operating indicators, creating requirements for start-up behaviour, response time, and the handling of display or communications faults.
The embedded controller’s graphics capabilities therefore need to be assessed alongside the wider vehicle architecture. Available processing performance and memory capacity determine how the display can be implemented, while any safety-related functions require separate system-level evaluation.
Qt and Nuvoton will demonstrate their integrated technology at electronica 2026 in Munich from 10 to 13 November, including motorcycle instrument cluster and appliance interface examples. The companies are positioning the combined platform for equipment developers seeking richer graphical displays while controlling the cost and complexity of embedded electronics.
